My Stance On Cruelty-Free Issues

23 June 2012

As much as I love nail polish and wouldn't want to live without it, I don't believe animals should have to suffer or die so I can have pretty nails.

However, as with most things in life, it's easier to want to do the right thing with respect to cruelty-free brands than to be able to do the right thing. Corporations change their practices, and are owned by parent corporations that may have different policies. Some companies are completely cruelty-free, while some are cruelty-free themselves, but use some ingredients that may not be. It's an on-going struggle to try to make responsible choices, but I think it's an important one to undertake, to the best of my ability.

As someone who loves both polish and animals, and who may indirectly promote nail polish products through my opinions on my blog, I think it's important for me to post my views and my personal practices regarding this issue. These are my own opinions, and my own choices; I am not asking anyone to follow my choices, although I do encourage everyone to get the best information possible about these issues and to make informed choices, whatever those might be for you.

Along with this, I encourage you to do your own research on this topic rather than take my word on the policies of any given company; I may be wrong, and my sources may be wrong. As a starting point, however, I'll refer you to what I've found to be a relatively up-to-date and fairly comprehensive list posted on www.pointlesscafe.com, which you can view by clicking here.

Here are the stands I take:

1) Companies that are known to not be cruelty-free: I do not buy polish from companies that are not themselves cruelty-free. I do currently own about 10 polishes I purchased from such companies before I knew they were not cruelty-free. I am not going to throw those away, since that does not help the issue; however, I will not feature or promote them on this site, nor will I replace them when they are gone. If they appear as part of a manicure I do, I will recommend an alternative rather than list and promote that polish.

2) Companies that are cruelty-free, but are owned by parent companies that are not: I am currently undecided about what to do in this case, and am open to input from my readers. On the one hand, it can be argued that any profit made by Sally Hansen, for example, contributes to profits by the parent company, Coty. On the other hand, it could be argued that if only subsidiaries that are cruelty-free are profitable, or are more profitable, this sends a message to the parent company which could contribute to a change in policy. So, I am of two minds here. At the current time I have decided I will buy such polishes (where the companies themselves are cruelty-free and do not contribute to animal abuse) only sparingly. My stance on this may change as I do more research.

3) Companies that are cruelty-free. My intention is to try, to the best of my knowledge, to only buy and review polishes that are cruelty-free, and that are owned by cruelty-free parent corporations. If you see me promoting a polish that you believe is not cruelty-free, please let me know about it so I can research it and make any necessary change.

At the end of the day, there are so many excellent polishes out there made by cruelty-free companies at affordable prices; in fact, most polish companies seem to be embracing cruelty-free practices. Again I want to be clear that these are my choices, and are not meant as a judgment on anyone else's choices or to force my opinions on anyone; I am merely reporting what you can expect to find on my site. I certainly hope visitors to my blog will make informed choices that are right for them, whatever that means for them.

7 comments:

A woman after my own heart! I love nail polish and animals too and I'm trying to switch to cruelty free products. My problem is that I can't find information on cruelty free stamping polish! I want to get the best results for stamping but I don't want to support testing on animals. Trying to find information on it is like banging your head against a brick wall!

It can be a struggle, yes. But I do have some information I think will help. Pure Ice is cruelty free, and their metallics stamp like a dream, especially their silver, Silver Mercedes; for a nice creme red, try their Siren. Lots of China Glazes stamp well--I particularly recommend the Romantique collection (every one of these I've tried has worked beautifully), but certainly not only those; plenty of their other polishes stamp well, too. I actually think China Glaze's Passion is the best gold on the market for stamping. As for white and black, Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris is a good black for stamping, and in that same line they have a good white too (although I haven't tried it myself yet). If you let me know which other colors you're interested in, I'll see if I can find some information for you. :)

I love wearing gel polishes and doing stamping. I contacted all the companies I used to find out their stance on animal testing. Bundle Monster got back to me immediately and informed me that thei polishes (gel, regular, stamping, stripers) are not tested on animals and the ingredients they buy are not tested either. That being said they did say some products use animal hair (I'm thinking that is in reference to their brushes). This is an awesome company with great customer support. Love everything from them!!

Facebook Badge

Subscribe To

Follow by Email

FTC DISCLOSURE

The Federal Trade Commission requires that I disclose any relationship I have between a product manufacturer or service provider when we write about a product or service. Lacquer Or Leave Her! receives a small commission for purchases made via Amazon affiliate links on this site. However, the above does not influence my opinion of those products and services. I am committed to providing helpful articles to my readers; my reviews are 100% honest.

Copyright Disclaimer

All rights reserved. I grant permission to use short quotes only if linked back to this page and proper attribution is given to me as the original author.